Level Low Downs
Prep
This term in Literacy the Prep’s have been learning about the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts. We have been practising our writing skills by creating lots of different informative and imaginative pieces. One of their tasks was to create a ‘Who am I?’ poster, sharing interesting facts about themselves with their classmates, teachers, and families. Can you recognise any of these students?
Year 1
The Year 1 Students enjoyed a fabulous incursion with Professor Bunsen last week. He presented experiments that helped the students understand the concepts around different states of matter. Some students were fortunate enough to assistant Professor Bunsen with some of the experiments. It was a great day!
Year 2
Thank you to all our volunteers for next week’s Legoland Excursion. Any parent who would like to meet us at Chadstone and is happy to meet their entrance costs, is very welcome. The Year 2s are very engaged in our Design Technology unit. Parachutes have been thrown off the Wooden Playground (Gravity), Mrs Angelis went down the slide to demonstrate friction (and resulting static electricity) and we have been sourcing buckets for our buoyancy lesson.
In literacy, we have been writing and publishing our procedures. Some examples of titles were ‘How to Throw your Drumsticks’, ‘How to Sing like Frank Sinatra’ and ‘How to Make a Breakfast Omelette’. (We all want to send our children to the ‘omelette family’ for parenting lessons.)
In Mathematics, we are exploring problem solving making sure students have plenty of challenging thinking time before we ask prompting questions. We believe that by solving problems students get a much better feel for what mathematics is all about, what it can do and how it does it. It’s all about solutions and not just answers.
Year 3
Last week, the Year 3s visited the Bayside Community Nursery. We were guided through the nursery and a local parkland by some lovely and very knowledgeable volunteers. They shared many interesting facts about native plants and wildlife, and how we can care for our environment.
The students spent time exploring all the different spaces within the nursey and parkland and had many of their questions answered. Here are some of the interesting things we learned and what we loved about our excursion.
We learned that female magpies have a grey back and male magpies have a white back. – Willow W.
We learned lots about Black Wattle which was very interesting, and it smelled lovely! – Rory.
When native plants are becoming endangered, the nursey propagate them to ensure the species does not become extinct. – Sam.
Coastal Banksia seeds are released by the flower part when they get hot which happens during bushfires. To collect the seeds from the plant, you can put the flower in the oven! – Rosie.
We learned how to propagate plants and I found it interesting that you had to cut the bottom, count three nodes, then cut the top and half of the leaf. – Chloe.
We learned what a swale was, which I found very interesting. A swale is like a tunnel that helps animals get from one place to another. The swale we saw helped the frogs get from one side of the new building, across to the golf course. – Pearl.
We learnt all the different names of the plants, both their common names and Indigenous names (Botanical name) – Lizzy.
I loved going through the green house when the sprinkler went on! – Miller.
I liked finding out about all the different names of the plants and what they were used for by Indigenous Australians who lived here before us. – Indi.
We want to send a very big THANK YOU to the amazing volunteers who made this excursion possible! We learnt many valuable lessons that have supported the student investigation into native plants and wildlife in our local area. This will help us with our further investigation throughout our inquiry unit.
We look forward to visiting again!
https://www.bcs.asn.au/bayside-community-nursery/
Year 4
The Year 4 students have been enjoying a maths unit of probability this week. They have investigated the concept of chance events and theoretical probabilities through a variety of games. Our writing sessions have focused on sentence fluency and structure where the students have explored how to create a certain mood using sentence length. They have been revising their knowledge of clauses and different sentence types, focusing on how they can vary these for writing impact. During reading we have continued to explore a range of ideas through our novel study of Nim’s Island. Students really enjoyed delving deeper into character traits and analysis and making their own character cards. A reminder we have 2 incursions coming up in Week 6 and 7 for our science unit, so please consent via Compass.
Year 5
MiniBoss ‘The Studio’ Podcast Incursion
As part of our writing unit students experienced a full-day incursion on how to create a podcast using an app called ‘Audacity’. Students worked in small teams to brainstorm, write, record and edit their own podcast. Students took on roles as Project Managers, Producers, Hosts and Branding Specialists to bring their idea to life. Students learnt how to use the app ‘Audacity’ to record, layer sounds with voices and edit their podcast. All the skills they learnt will be used in our end of term inquiry project, where students are creating their very own podcast.
Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne
The Year 5s visited the Royal Botanical Gardens on Wednesday, where the students participated in the excursion ‘Designed by Nature & Biomimicry’. Students walked around different parts of the gardens, such as the oak forest, and used microscopes, binoculars and magnifying glasses to explore and have a close up look at nature. They learnt about biomimicry and spent time investigating how they could take inspiration from nature to design a product that could be used in today’s society that minimises the impact on our environment.
Year 6
The Year 6 students had the fortunate opportunity to be present at Beaumaris Secondary College's impressive production titled 'School of Rock' yesterday. The students were amazed by the exceptional performances in acting, dancing, singing, and musical talent displayed by the secondary school students. Not only did the Year 6 students learn about audience etiquette during the show, but they also got a sneak peek of what's to come with their own production of 'Matilda' just on the horizon. Witnessing the secondary school students' remarkable performance has heightened their excitement for their own upcoming show!